A VRML World Building Process

Here's the process I use to create the VRML worlds I've built so far. It's only one process of many possible ways to build VRML worlds, and as I find out about new tools and techniques, it's likely to change.

• First I use a geometry modeler to build my objects, and export them into VRML 1.0 and VRML 2.0 files. I also collect models in various 3D formats from repositories and collect or build the textures I'm going to use.
• Then I use some converters to turn VRML 1.0 into VRML 2.0, 3DS and DXF files into VRML, and so on.
• Then I put the objects together in a scene, light them, texture them, add behaviors, and set up viewpoints
• The next step is postproduction. I've made the world, but I haven't made it good yet. Now it's time.
• Finally, I put my world on the web and tell some of my friends about it.

Click in the titles in the frame on the left or the links on this page, and you can find out about each of these steps.

That process is far from the only one, or even the only one I use. Leonard Daly noted in a post to www-vrml that his process consists of:

• Drawing the world in as much detail as appropriate
• Mark where the viewpoints will be
• Indicate animation triggers
• Storyboard the animations

This is a much more organized process than I use, and much better suited to larger projects.

Did I leave anything out about the world-building process that you need to know? Tell me.